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can vs can't

Learning from a video lesson about difference between can and can't, I found the following.
1. It's hard to tell the difference between a and b as glottal stop sounds just like a mute pause. Can native speakers tell the difference between a and b easily?
2. In c, I was surprised to find /kɪn/ as I have never seen it. Maybe I took /kən/ for /kɪn/ as the former sounds similar to the latter. And I learned /kən/ instead of /kɪn/, so do I have to abandon /kən/ from now on?

**This had better be learned on an online chatting program like Paltalk with native English teachers, but I don't think it's easy for them to make an appoinment with me.

Re: can vs can't

As you know, I'm not a native speaker, but I want to say something about your first question. There was more difference between her "can" and "can't" than just the glottal stop at the end of the latter. The intonation was also different.

Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. Also, not every American will be kind enough to throw in a glottal stop there, which as you say is not that easy to catch anyway. I know from Americans that it does happen that "can" and "can't" confuse them (when stressed). These words can be indistinguishable even to native American speakers.

Re: can vs can't

Originally Posted by keannu

Learning from a video lesson about difference between can and can't, I found the following.
1. It's hard to tell the difference between a and b as glottal stop sounds just like a mute pause. Can native speakers tell the difference between a and b easily?

Yes. The giveaway is the length of the vowel sound. Can has a short vowel even when it's stressed: /kӕn/. Can't has a long vowel sound /ka:nt/ (the t can be replaced with a glottal stop).

Originally Posted by keannu

2. In c, I was surprised to find /kɪn/ as I have never seen it. Maybe I took /kən/ for /kɪn/ as the former sounds similar to the latter. And I learned /kən/ instead of /kɪn/, so do I have to abandon /kən/ from now on?

No. That's a very particular pronunciation. I've heard it before, but most people say /kən/.

Re: can vs can't

This can probably be best answered by Americans. In my experience, I really had a hard time distinguishing "can" and "can't" when "can" was "stressed". As you said, /kən/ seems to be more common for "can", but if they stressed it, I had no way to tell as I didn't even know about glottal stop.

If this is so hard, how do Americans tell these two confusing sounds? Do they have a secret like context or gesture- I even heard from Americans that they sometimes tell from facial expressions or gestures? But this won't apply in other cases as sometimes I have to practice taped listening tests, which has no clue of such things.

...I can see how in American English, it would be difficult to tell the difference if they were stressing can or can't in the sentence...